Clifton is the largest city in Bosque County, Texas, United States.

[5] Clifton was founded in the winter of 1852–1853, when the families of Frank Kell, Joseph A. Kemp, Samuel and Monroe Locker, and T. A. McSpadden settled in the vicinity.

After the Civil War, Joel Martin Stinnett, the grandfather of Joseph Kemp, built a flour mill powered by the Bosque River.

In 1880, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built a station a mile south of Clifton.

The Clifton Record, a newspaper that began publishing in 1895 under the ownership of W. C. O'Brian, continued to serve the community.

A fire on December 23, 1906, destroyed a large portion of the business district, which was eventually rebuilt.

[7] Although no injuries were reported, the heaviest damage was in town near the intersection of Pecan and Avenue G.[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.9 sq mi (4.9 km2), all land.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

[9] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,465 people, 1,358 households, and 925 families residing in the city.

The nearby community of Norse is the final resting place of Cleng Peerson, commonly recognized as the "Father of Norwegian Immigration to America."

The church is the annual site of the Norse Smorgasbord, a feast of traditional foods introduced to the area by Norwegian settlers.

Further down the road a Lutefisk dinner is held annually in Cranfills Gap, near the site of the historic St. Olaf Kirke, often called the Old Rock Church.

The daylong event features demonstrations of Norwegian crafts, tours of homes and buildings harkening back to the days of the early settlers, and many other related activities.

The 1999 tour was a featured Road Trip appearing in the November 1999 issue of Texas Highways.

Artist Merritt Mauzey received the first Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in fine arts ever awarded to a Texan in 1946.